Baron Karza

I've been very busy with freelance work lately, and haven't had much time for any personal art. I'll be posting some of that freelance work soon, but in the meantime, here's a drawing of the Micronauts bad guy, Baron Karza.

Witchy Woman

This drawing is from a  couple of months back, while I was working on Halloween designs at work.

Tammy's Sketchbook

Drawn for another friend at work, in her Unicorn and candy sketchbook.

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Tommy's Sketchbook

I did this for a friend at work, in his sketchbook.

Ghost Rider Collaboration

Here's another Ghost Rider drawing that I penciled and my buddy Jesse Hernandez did an awesome job of inking.

Gorilla Grodd

Did this in a copy of my book,  for my friend and co-worker, Craig Parrillo.

Check out some of his cool art at his blog:

Pencil Mayhem

Another Monster

Here's another drawing I did during the New York Comic Con..I started it at home and worked on it off and on at the convention. Drawn on a cut down sheet of 8 1/2" X 14" bristol paper.

MTV Geek Launch Party

After the Comic Con, on Saturday, my buddy Brad hosted a party at a pub a few blocks from the Javits Center, to launch his new site MTV Geek.  There was food, an open bar, Paul Pope spinning records and live art being created by awesome talents such as Dave DeVries, Jim Mahfood, Dave Crossland, Molly Crabapple, Sanford Greene and Ben Templesmith.  My buddy Carlos and I were also in the mix, as well as a bunch of other artists that I never got the names of.

All the art being done is ultimately going to be auctioned off this week for the CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund).  I'll update this post with a link when I get one.  In the meantime, here are the three pieces I did for the auction. Unfortunately, I heard that after I took off, a drunk patron knocked over some beer, ruining a bunch of pieces, one of mine included. Which one, I'm not sure yet.

You can also see some pics from the night over at the MTV Geek website, here:

MTV GEEK Launch Party pics

***UPDATE**

As it turns out, the Monster drawing in the middle above was the one that got some beer spilled on  it.

Thankfully it wasn't too bad, and most of the drawing survived intact. All the art from the night has now been posted on MTV GEEK (the actual auction will follow soon) and it can be seen here:

MTV GEEK - LIVE ART for Auction

NYCC sketches

Even though NYCC wasn't exactly the most financially rewarding venture, it was still a lot of fun and I got to meet some old friends, as well as make some new. I did move a decent number of buttons (maybe 1/2 a table of just buttons next year??),  but those are only a buck, so the return isn't great.  Still, I managed to do a fair number of sketches over the weekend. I don't have scans of anything, just pics I took before I handed them off.

The first sketch of the weekend was this Biolante (as in Godzilla Vs. Biolante) for a guy starting off a Kaiju sketchbook.

I also did a few sketches inside copies of my 'Graphic Art' book and 'Monsters' book.

New York Comic Con

I'll be sharing a table with my good friend, caricaturist Dan Springer, at this years New York Comic Con at the Jacob Javits Center, this weekend, October 8-10.  We'll be at table N-14, in Artist Alley.

I'll have prints, buttons, stickers and copies of my new book 'The Graphic Art of Justin Leiter,' for sale...I'll also have freshly printed copies of my last sketchbook, 'The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Monsters,'...I've just got a few copies left of the first, limited run. And I'll take commission requests, including sketches inside the books!  Come by and say 'hi'.

Here's the cover to the new book.

MORE EK SUCCESS SKETCHCARDS!

BlOoRp!

EK SUCCESS SKETCHCARDS

Initiated by one of the Art Directors at work, some of the graphic artists are drawing sketchcards and then trading them amongst ourselves.   Here are a few of the ones I did.

It was Twenty Years Ago today...

In the midst of putting together my second art book, for this years upcoming New York Comic Con, I found some old sketches, circa 1990...these won't be in the book, just thought it might be fun to post them for what it's worth.

Behold ... Charles Munro

Last week I came across the shocking and upsetting news that my friend Charles Munro had passed away.  I first met Charles when we worked together at Kleiner't's, in 1999.  He was also a graphic artist,  doing kids clothing like myself.  After he left and worked elsewhere, we saw each other a few times, and then lost contact for a number of years before reconnecting on Facebook, last November.  We spoke on the phone once and then kept up through e-mail. Charles was getting involved in electronic keyboard music, creating really cool, atmospheric pieces on his computer.  In his last e-mail to me, on July 9th, he mentioned how he was entering an online music contest. 

That was also his last post on his Facebook page.  Not hearing from him for a bit, I went over to his page to discover the terrible news that he had passed away in his sleep and that a wake had been held for him on July 12th. I was numb and saddened.  Charles was a sweet guy, a talented artist and an emerging electronic musician.  

Charles used to have a saying at work -  ' Behold'...it didn't really mean anything...or did it?  It was just a cool emphatic message...sort of an Asgardian, mythical word.  One day, while our boss was out sick, I pencilled a quick nonsense comic based around the word.  In memory of Charles, today I sat down and inked it.   R.I.P. Charles.

Charles' music can be found at:

Charles Munro Music

I Float, Therefore I Am.

Looking through some old files, I found these two guys, and a few more, in semi-completed form. I colored them and added the backgrounds, using some drawings I had done for Hot Wheels.

And another monster sketchpage...

A Monster Sketchpage

This page dates back a year or so..there's a date of 4-20-08 in the bottom left, but I think that was just for the red pencil demon dude in the middle of the page (later inked)...the rest of the blue pencil drawings are more recent.

Sharks and Dinos

Some recent designs for Target boys swimwear.

Merry Bloody Christmas!

Maybe this should have waited 'til the appropriate time to post, but what the hell..came across it while looking for some cupcake illos in an old folder from my days at Saramax. This was done sometime in 2008 (even though it's got a 2009 date on it).  I was really just doing regular cute gingerbread girls, but felt like tweaking it a bit.